Hand protector



Oct. 10, 1933. w. HoRLlcK. JR

HAND PROTECTOR Filed Feb. l2, 1931 HA W\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ l EQWW Wil/anzffor ,JE j?? Patented ct. l0, 1933 y 1,929,494. y HAND PROTECTOR tirarsi Y n William Horliclx, Sir., Racine, Wis. Y Appiicationnetmary 12, 19er.V serial ivo. 515,300

Y 3 Claims.

This invention relates to a hand protector for use in connectionwith sliding doors of various types,'for example, a fire door which slides in al plane closely adjacent a wall, and which door 5 is provided with a hand-hole for facilitatin manipulation of the door. i Y rihe objects of the invention are to provide a arrangement for preventing the fingers of a hand from being drawn between the wall and l the door whereby they might be seriously injured; to provide a simple and inexpensive de vice of the type referred to, which will, nevertheless, be effective for its intended purpose; to provide such a device which will not unnecessarily l obstruct the doorway, and, in general, it is the object of the invention to provide an improved safety device of the class referred to.

Other objects and advantages ofthe invention will be understood by reference to the following specification and accompanying drawing in which a selected embodiment of the invention is illustrated.

In the drawing:

1 is a horizontal section through a portion of a slidingdoor and the wall adjacent which the door slides, and i Fig. 2 is a perspective of the improved hand protector.

Referring now to the drawing, a sliding door such as a nre door is indicated at 5, the door being of any suitable construction, such as metal, or of composite construction, and slidably mounted by any approved means not shown. Of course,

it is understood that the door slides horizontally in the direction of its width, vas indicated by the arrow designated 6. The door, in this instance, is provided with a hand-hole 'l for facilitating inanipulation of the door in a conventional manner and as indicated.

40 A wall portion adjacent which the door slides .is indicated at 8, the arrangement being such that there is a small space, indicated 9, between the door and the face 1G of the wall which is substantially parallel with the 'adjacent face of the door 5. The end face 11 of the wall 8 constitutes one side of the doorway which the door 5 close t often occurs that a person opening a door arranged as above described inadvertently fails to withdraw his or her fingers from the handhole before the fingers are caught against the rear edge 12 of the hand-hole and forced into the restricted space 9 between the door and wall with resulting painful and often serious and perinanent injury to the fingers.

For preventing such accidents, I provide a protector or guard, which, in thisinstancefcomprises 'a non-metallic exible flap-likeportion 13',l which projects into the doorway from the wall 11 at one side thereof, in such spaced relation to the door as to provide ample room betweenthe door and 'the guard portion 13 to receive the ngers, as indicated in broken lines. Itwill also be noted that the guard member'll projects into the doorway a sufficient distance to prevent the ends of the fingers from reaching the wall', and hence 65 full protection is afforded. v The guard member 13, which may be made of leather, may be mounted on the wall in any suitable rnanner, and, in this instance, 1 have provided a base portion 14 consisting of an angle iron 70 member having a side flange 15to which the 711; flexible guard portion 13 is secured by riveting, as indicated at 16, and a side portion 17 which is designed to be disposed'against vthe sideLll of the doorway and secured thereto by means of bolts and nuts, as indicated at 18. y Y C?.

From an examination of Fig. 1 of the drawing, it will be understood that the flexibility of Vthe guard portion 13 serves to permit yielding of the said portion away from the door when the guard s is engaged by the fingers, whereby the width of L; the finger-receiving space maybe readily increased to insure a sufcient amount of clearance between the fingers 'and the door. Also, 85 such flexibility serves to facilitate'withdrawal of the fingers without scraping them Aagainst the l" door.` Another advantage incident to the use of the flexible portion 13 is that it may be made sufiiciently flexible to be bendable to such an extent that it will not prevent the passage of large obh jects through the door.

By examination of Figure 2, it will` be apparent that the length, i. e., the vertical dimension, of the guard is such that it will overlap the zoneV 9 in which the hand will travel when manipulating j the door through the agency of the'hand-hole or*- other grip provided on the door. Obviously, the guard may be extended either vertically or horizontally to suit conditions of the particular in- Mm cerros invention, the scope of which should be determined by reference to the following claims.

I claim as my invention:

l. A guard for the purpose set forth, comprising a non-metallic flexible portion adapted to project perpendicularly into a doorway from a wall at one side thereof in such spaced relation to a sliding door closing said doorway and to such an extent as to provide finger-receiving space between the door and the flexible portion, and an angular metal bracket member having aside portion to which said flexible member is secured in co-planar relation and a side portion adapted to be positioned against said wall for mountingthe guard thereon. Y v y Y f 2. In combination with a sliding door which slides in a plane closely adjacent and substane tially parallel to' a wall to close a doorway, a guard secured to the face of said wall within said doorway,.said guard comprising an angular member having one flange attached to said wall and a flange projecting into said doorway, and a flexible member secured to said last-mentioned flange and substantially co-planar therewith, said flange being spaced sufficiently from the face of said wall adjacent and parallel to said door to provide finger-receiving space between the door and said guard.

3. In combination with a sliding door which slides substantially parallel to and adjacent a wall surface, the door having manually engageble means adjacent its front edge 'for facilitating manual opening and closing of the door, a member secured to the wall adjacent the rear edge of the door and having a portion extending from -thewall in the direction of and in spaced relation tothe door, said member being or" such length as to engage the hand or iingers of a person opening the `door at a sufficient distance from the wall to prevent the fingers from contacting with the wall and being in such spaced relation relative to the door as to provide space for freely receiving the ingers.

`W. HORLICK, JR. 

